Hospital of the Transfiguration (film)

Hospital of the Transfiguration is a Polish psychological war film from 1978 directed by Edward Żebrowski [pl], based on Stanisław Lem's 1955 novel of the same title. The film's theme revolves around the extermination of patients in a psychiatric hospital shortly after the outbreak of World War II (Aktion T4). The story focuses on the character of Dr. Stefan (played by Piotr Dejmek [pl]), who dares to protest against unethical experiments conducted on patients by the hospital staff even before the arrival of the Germans. The film was mostly well received by critics and won multiple awards, including at the Polish Film Festival and the Locarno Film Festival. Its strengths were praised for its aesthetic quality and insightful analysis of the reasons for acquiescence to totalitarianism, while its weakness was seen in deviating from wartime realities in favor of an idiosyncratic stylization.